Following last night's train-wreck presidential debate, voters on both sides of the aisle are discussing where the candidates went wrong. Recently-released recordings damning Trump as a vile sexist have certainly swung the election. For Hillary, controversy has risen from multiple sources. Is it the emails keeping poll numbers lower than is comfortable? Are voters hesitant due to her health? Third-party candidates stealing main-party votes? Perhaps it's her foreign policy, specifically regarding Syria?
While all of these issues are relevant to her polling status, one glaring error has prevented her from having this election in the bag: her choice for running mate.
The primaries were rife with anti-Hillary sentiment from conservatives, third-party or nonpartisan voters, and those rallied to politics by Bernie's appeal to the working class. Following the reveal of systemic corruption in the Democratic National Committee, both Clinton's campaign and the Democratic Party suffered irreparable damage.
Secretary Clinton could have easily reached out to disillusioned Democrats, former Bernie supporters, anti-Trump conservatives, and third-party voters by making Senator Sanders her vice president. Instead, she chose another center-right politician, with "meh" public opinion and no minority status. While Senator Kaine is a viable politician, his political and personal histories are nothing extraordinary; he is a straight, white, Christian male from a lower-middle class family. He has acceptable views for liberals but does not add much to Clinton's campaign – her career is far more interesting; he also adds no appeal to other voters.
Had Clinton made Bernie Sanders her running mate, she would have had the presidency in her hands weeks, months ago. She would have her own supporters, neoliberals, as well as backing from third-party voters, environmentalists, Native American voters, millenials, socialists, Bernie Bros, Jewish Americans, college students, working-class Americans, immigrant populations...The list goes on.
While some in her camp would be concerned with a Clinton-Sanders ticket hurting her bank-friendly reputation, she would still be the nominee, not Sanders. Further, the support she would gain from unionized workers and the proletariat would more than recompense for any Wall Street fallout.
Rather than securing the election with such a simple move, Clinton has now left American voters terrified that Trump could possibly win the election. Here's to hoping America doesn't elect the worse evil.
